Time to get moving – How to Overcome Procrastination
I’ve been intending to write about procrastination for a long time, but I have never had time to do it.
Procrastination is nothing to be ashamed of , almost everyone gets a bout from time to time. I understood it was time for me to get off Twitteran d share some powerful ideas to help you stop time wasting for good.
Overcoming procrastination can gain you more time, increase your sense of accomplishment and take away the frustration of feeling stuck.
Learning how to begin work projects, do what really matters and grasp the day can have a massive impact on your happiness and success.
What is procrastination?
Psychologists define procrastination as something “counter-productive, needless and delaying” – and that is no fun after all.
We all have some great techniques for procrastinating, some of my personal favourites include:
“ There no rush it can wait.”
“ Its not Important.”
“I’ll start doing that this afternoon / tomorrow / next week / next month…”
“I’ll just clean the house / bathe the dog / take out the rubbish / check Facebook / cut my toenails first….”
“Every time I’m about to start, the phone rings / my boss comes by / I get an urgent email….”
What makes us come up with these fiendish avoidance tactics?
Check your Head
According to the Mind Gym, procrastination is typically driven by our deeper beliefs about the world. If we can identify the underlying assumptions and motivatiorn, we can start to understand and beat our procrastination.
They suggest some common beliefs that lead to time-wasting:
Perfectionism, do you try for absolute perfection in everything you do? Perfection is such a high standard to reach, this creates a massive amount of pressure to perform well. Trying to write the perfect CV, create the ideal Powerpoint, have the perfect call with that customer is such a daunting task. It is easy to understand why starting such a task feels frightening and is easy to put off. To somwe other time.
Certainty, “Before I take my dream trip to Canada / start this project on marketing to clients companies / go to that evening class, I need to know all about it”. The need for certainty can make us to spend years in the research phase and never get started. We fear that unless we’re an expert, we’ll be exposed as a fraud, look stupid and everything will go wrong. So we never start.
Fear of failure, starting is the first step on the downward trip to failure, public humiliation and destitution. Failure has stopped many good ideas and projects in their tracks. This is probably the single largest cause of procrastination.
I’m not up to doing it , when we don’t believe we can do something, we’ll find every reason and excuse in the world not to do it. The most debilitating idea in the world is “there is no way I can do this”.
Next time you find yourself watching TV or re-tweetig that latest fascinating post, take a second. What are you putting off and why?
Changing Minds
If you want to beat procrastination, start by changing your thinking. You can only change some things in your life if you change some things in your life. Once you’ve identified what is behind your procrastination, try this approach:
Step 1 – Re think your belief
Start to take the pressure off yourself by looking at things that effect your beliefs in a less harsh way:
“I need get a perfect result” becomes “I’d like a perfect result”
“I need to know everything about this” becomes “It would be good to know everything about this’
“I’m terrified of failing” becomes “It would be better not to fail”
“I can’t do this” becomes “I’m not sure if I am ready for this”
Immediately, these beliefs become less imposing and less of a barrier to getting starting.
Step 2 – Create a safety net
Now to further reduce your belief. Add in a get-out clause that makes the belief even less daunting. For example:
“I’d like a perfect result but if I don’t get one it doesn’t matter.”
“It would be good to know everything about this but I already know enough to start and I’ll keep learning as I go along.”
These statements take away the terrible future events we’ve already imagined for the task. It is ok if we try our best and we don’t quite reach perfect.ion. If we do fail, we may even learn more than if we succeed.
Step 3 – Go for it
With the newly installed belief in place, it is time to get started! When I’ve used this technique, it often feels like a weight has been lifted from my shoulders. I always find that just taking action is the best way to beat procrastination.
I know one of the major reason I procrastinate is because I look at the task as a whole and forget to use the salarmi approach. So when I think of all the stuff I still have to do to get to my goal, it can be demotivating. But once I just focus on the task at hand and enjoy the process, it get’s much easier to get things done.
“Whatever you do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius and power and magic in it.” Johann von Goethe
Penny for your thoughts
What are you procrastinating about?
What beliefs are stoping you moving forward and holding you back?
How can you rethink those beliefs?
How do you beat procrastination?
Please leave a comment and share your thoughts.
Brilliant ideas on beating procrastination
www.developingyoursuccess.com
I’ve been intending to write about procrastination for a long time, but I have never had time to do it.
Procrastination is nothing to be ashamed of , almost everyone gets a bout from time to time. I understood it was time for me to get off Twitteran d share some powerful ideas to help you stop time wasting for good.
Overcoming procrastination can gain you more time, increase your sense of accomplishment and take away the frustration of feeling stuck.
Learning how to begin work projects, do what really matters and grasp the day can have a massive impact on your happiness and success.
What is procrastination?
Psychologists define procrastination as something “counter-productive, needless and delaying” – and that is no fun after all.
We all have some great techniques for procrastinating, some of my personal favourites include:
“ There no rush it can wait.”
“ Its not Important.”
“I’ll start doing that this afternoon / tomorrow / next week / next month…”
“I’ll just clean the house / bathe the dog / take out the rubbish / check Facebook / cut my toenails first….”
“Every time I’m about to start, the phone rings / my boss comes by / I get an urgent email….”
What makes us come up with these fiendish avoidance tactics?
Check your Head
According to the Mind Gym, procrastination is typically driven by our deeper beliefs about the world. If we can identify the underlying assumptions and motivatiorn, we can start to understand and beat our procrastination.
They suggest some common beliefs that lead to time-wasting:
Perfectionism, do you try for absolute perfection in everything you do? Perfection is such a high standard to reach, this creates a massive amount of pressure to perform well. Trying to write the perfect CV, create the ideal Powerpoint, have the perfect call with that customer is such a daunting task. It is easy to understand why starting such a task feels frightening and is easy to put off. To somwe other time.
Certainty, “Before I take my dream trip to Canada / start this project on marketing to clients companies / go to that evening class, I need to know all about it”. The need for certainty can make us to spend years in the research phase and never get started. We fear that unless we’re an expert, we’ll be exposed as a fraud, look stupid and everything will go wrong. So we never start.
Fear of failure, starting is the first step on the downward trip to failure, public humiliation and destitution. Failure has stopped many good ideas and projects in their tracks. This is probably the single largest cause of procrastination.
I’m not up to doing it , when we don’t believe we can do something, we’ll find every reason and excuse in the world not to do it. The most debilitating idea in the world is “there is no way I can do this”.
Next time you find yourself watching TV or re-tweetig that latest fascinating post, take a second. What are you putting off and why?
Changing Minds
If you want to beat procrastination, start by changing your thinking. You can only change some things in your life if you change some things in your life. Once you’ve identified what is behind your procrastination, try this approach:
Step 1 – Re think your belief
Start to take the pressure off yourself by looking at things that effect your beliefs in a less harsh way:
“I need get a perfect result” becomes “I’d like a perfect result”
“I need to know everything about this” becomes “It would be good to know everything about this’
“I’m terrified of failing” becomes “It would be better not to fail”
“I can’t do this” becomes “I’m not sure if I am ready for this”
Immediately, these beliefs become less imposing and less of a barrier to getting starting.
Step 2 – Create a safety net
Now to further reduce your belief. Add in a get-out clause that makes the belief even less daunting. For example:
“I’d like a perfect result but if I don’t get one it doesn’t matter.”
“It would be good to know everything about this but I already know enough to start and I’ll keep learning as I go along.”
These statements take away the terrible future events we’ve already imagined for the task. It is ok if we try our best and we don’t quite reach perfect.ion. If we do fail, we may even learn more than if we succeed.
Step 3 – Go for it
With the newly installed belief in place, it is time to get started! When I’ve used this technique, it often feels like a weight has been lifted from my shoulders. I always find that just taking action is the best way to beat procrastination.
I know one of the major reason I procrastinate is because I look at the task as a whole and forget to use the salarmi approach. So when I think of all the stuff I still have to do to get to my goal, it can be demotivating. But once I just focus on the task at hand and enjoy the process, it get’s much easier to get things done.
“Whatever you do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius and power and magic in it.” Johann von Goethe
Penny for your thoughts
What are you procrastinating about?
What beliefs are stoping you moving forward and holding you back?
How can you rethink those beliefs?
How do you beat procrastination?
Please leave a comment and share your thoughts.
Brilliant ideas on beating procrastination
www.developingyoursuccess.com
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